The Great Place To Work Institute compiles the Fortune Magazine annual ranking of the Top 100 Places to Work in America. They conduct extensive research on the workplace and have identified trust, pride and camaraderie as pillars of a great place to work. These aren’t just touchy feely concepts. They are hard edged business attributes that contribute to bottom-line success. They have the data to back it up.

This past Monday I played golf in a fund raiser for Birdies for the Brave. Birdies for the Brave was originally created by TOUR player Phil Mickelson and his wife, Amy, to support troops injured during combat. For each birdie or eagle made by Phil throughout the season, a contribution of $100 for a birdie or $500 for an eagle is made to Homes For Our Troops and Special Operations Warrior Foundation. It has since grown to involve a number of PGA Tour professionals with several additional veterans support organizations benefitting from the money raised. On Monday there was a triple amputee IED explosion survivor playing golf who had been helped by the fund.

Getting back to the great place work concept. Pride refers to pride in my organization. When a company supports a group like Birdies for the Brave it can increase pride in the employees. Camaraderie refers to the camaraderie I have with my fellow employees. It means I like them and like working with them. Talk about a win-win. When an organization supports a charitable organization and the employees get involved it creates two of the three pillars of a great place to work.

You don’t play golf? How about collect toys for Toys for Tots? While I have a soft spot for veterans support organizations there are plenty of worthy causes (as evidenced by all the pink worn by athletes during October for breast cancer awareness) that need your support.

At the golf outing on Monday there were five teams associated with a local AT&T office. It was a mix of office and field employees and they had come together to support a worthy cause and along the way they got to know each other better. There will be a payoff in their workplace for this. Regrettably, not all employers understand this payoff and it seems like some go out of their way to not support such activities.

What can you do in your workplace to get the team involved in supporting a worthy cause? You can start small, don’t be discouraged. AT&T had five teams this year but a few years back they had one team. If you are interviewing for a job you can inquire about these kinds of activities. If they are smart they will be talking them up in the interview before you even raise the question.

Trust, pride and camaraderie: find these things and you might find a great place to work. If you are a leader, create these things and you will be leading a great place to work.

Click here to learn about Birdies for the Brave
Click here for Toys for Tots

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.